Monday, February 26, 2007

Cuba Street Carnival!



The city slogan here is "You can't beat Wellington on a good day." This could not be more true. Luckily, we had great weather for the biennial Cuba Street Carnival. It was sunny with temperatures in the high 70's.

This post has lots and lots of pictures to give you an idea of all the action. Be sure to click on the photos and scroll since a few are quite large.

Since our apartment was less than a block from all the action, we invited friends to 'pop' over between events. A few did stop by including our friends Anita & Marco (remember from the camping trip post?) and Alice and her husband James who arrived in Wellington from the UK only two weeks ago. Gary, an American who has been living in New Zealand for the past few months, is on his way to Australia and then back to the U.S. (not sure where, yet, but it seems the West Coast is looking good...) He'll be missed here, especially during William's D&D sessions.

Party goers from left to right: James, Alice, William, Stacey, Anita, Gary, Marco.


A panoramic of the main stage area during the Mint Chicks set.
Note the Lady Luck selling fresh Havana coffee drinks off to the left--Stacey's favorite coffee!


Tahu brings us music with traditional Maori instruments; The Yoots do some big band brass; Candela spices things up with some salsa (and the Kiwis loved it--who knew?)




Sanjay Dixit does some Indian Percussion; The view from our apartment patio!



Can't have a Carnival without Hare Krishnas and guys dressed as sheep



Festive and "Frightening" Parade!



We could have qualified to be on this float!



Some of the more inventive floats



Dark Lord of the Sith &
his favorite bounty hunter!


The Ice Queen and a Fire Dancer


Acrobatics, Stilts & Neat Skeleton Puppets!



1 comment:

WS said...

Good to hear from you Ken. I have been meaning to call and check in on ya, see what you were up to.

Kiwis love shorts! They wear them all the time, even when it's freezing-ass cold outside! Wellingtonians in particular like to wear clothing in defiance of the weather. They were wearing shorts and jandals the day we got here in August, and it was cold!

In general, the attire in NZ is quite casual. It speaks to the cultural outlook, I think. The people are pretty laid back and most enjoy the outdoors. Where I work, at Department of Conservation, the dress code really varies from person to person and depends on the situation. I have only seen one day where lots of people had ties on, and it was when some of the Ministers were touring the building.

The casual nature takes some getting used to, for an uptight American in particular, but once you do it's really quite nice.

It is really warm now--beautiful weather and it has been for several weeks. If anyone is thinking about visiting, my suggestion is February - March for sure.

Glad to hear all is well, will call and pester you sometime soon on the phone!!!